A message from Art Thompson...

Part 9 in a multipart series examining solutions for our ailing economy, presented by Art Thompson, CEO of The John Birch Society.

It is not our purpose to delve into the various complications of the Federal Reserve, but only to touch on the highlights and ramifications of such a system.

The American people have to decide one of two things:

1) Do they want to remain free and independent, taking responsibility for their own lives, or;

2) Allow Congress to continue to go beyond the Constitutional limitation of government and allow any agency to control and issue fiat money, and the amount of that issue.

We are currently operating under the system listed as option number 2. How we got here involves two major steps away from the economic system of individual freedom our Founding Fathers preserved for us. The first occurred during the Civil War as the Coinage Act. Then, just before World War I, the stablishment of the Federal Reserve. There were other minor and supporting acts augmenting the power and scope of these two important actions along the way.

The Constitution was brought about to protect the rights of the individual and the people. In the course of protecting these rights, the Constitution stipulates what Congress and the states may do concerning money. The powers given to the Congress were short and specific: to mint gold and silver, establish the value thereof, to establish the value of foreign coin, and require the states to pay debts in gold or silver.

It was not that our Founders were unfamiliar with paper money that caused them to mention only gold and silver ― it was because they were very familiar with paper money that they only mentioned gold and silver.

One of the crucial arguments in the Constitutional Convention was the desire to keep government from issuing paper money. The colonialists had a very bad experience as a result of issuing the “Continental,” the paper money issued by the Continental Congress during the War of Independence. The paper was worthless, built more on hope than substance. It was so worthless that for nearly two hundred years a saying in America was, “It’s not worth a Continental.”

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As always, looking out for us..

Papa Ed